Black Coffee: Why Buy Chicken McNuggets When You Can Just Say ‘Not’?

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past week…

Blogs I’ve Been Following This Week

Couple Money – More People Preparing to Eat Dog Food in Retirement. I expected this article to be a taste test comparison between Alpo and bargain-brand dog food. No such luck. Instead, I was treated to this excellent guest post from the “Get Out of Debt Guy” (a.k.a. Steve) who explains why immediate bankruptcy is preferable to raiding your retirement account when you’re overwhelmed with debt.

Financial Samurai – How to Save More for Retirement if You Don’t Make Much Money. Of course, nobody would ever have to worry about eating Alpo in their golden years if they followed most of Sam’s advice in this primer on how to save money with a smaller income. I say “most” because Sam curiously turns his own logic upside down midway through the otherwise excellent piece. Ironically, while Sam effectively argues from a platform based upon self-reliance and personal responsibility, he also suggests those same folks would be better off voting for politicians who don’t. Just sayin’.

Minting Nickels – Perfection Not Required. Says Lindy:“Sometimes, you don’t have to know what you’re doing to make money.” Oh yeah? If that’s true, my blog should have made me richer than Warren Buffett by now.

Afford Anything – You Are What You Think. Apparently, there is a corollary to the Law of Attraction that says your brain is incapable hearing the word “not.” To paraphrase Paula, if you tell yourself, “Don’t mess up,” you’ll mess up. Fascinating, if true. I’m going to test out that theory by telling myself I’m not going to get lucky tonight.

Bernie Madoff Starts His 150-Year Prison Sentence – This commentary on the guy who got 150 years for swindling investors out of $50 billion has the distinction of being the shortest post on my blog. And you thought my 100-word articles were quick reads.

Credits and Debits

Debit: Despite raising income tax rates last year by 67% (yes, as in “sixty-seven percent”) — not to mention sharply boosting corporate tax rates — the Illinois state comptroller announced this week that there’s still a debt crisis in the “Land of Lincoln.” Yep; to the tune of $8.5 billion.

Credit: How much more proof do you need that raising taxes — temporary or otherwise — does absolutely nothing to curb free-spending politicians’ addiction to your money? I’m not sayin’. I’m just sayin’.

Debit: Meanwhile the governor of my dysfunctional home state of California, “Moonbeam” Jerry Brown, is now proposing additional tax hikes to close the Golden State’s $9.2 billion deficit caused by his spend-happy legislature.

Debit: At the same time he is pushing mindless government boondoggles like the $98-billion bullet train to nowhere. Well, it’s “nowhere” unless you consider the proposed initial 130-mile run between Fresno and Bakersfield “somewhere.”

Credit: To paraphrase the Washington Post, yes, the California bullet train goes nowhere, but at least it will go nowhere fast.

Debit:Speaking of failed government boondoggles, last week solar-energy firm Solyndra asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to pay 24 of its remaining 84 employees bonuses amounting to up to a half-million bucks. I know.

In other useless news, according to Google Analytics, here are some of the more curious questions visitors entered into Google’s search engine last month that led them, somehow, some way, to Len Penzo dot Com:

Are those magic 8 balls really true?

Are twins social security numbers numerical? [sic]

Can I get a mortgage when I make 10,000$ [sic] a year?

Can an 86 year old get a 30 year loan?

How black coffee help my sex life? [sic]

How much did dirty harry’s trousers cost?

How many 46 year old idiots can’t survive on their own?

How long will a [sic] pace salsa (mild) remain edible?

How do people in shit neighborhoods afford nice cars?

Is barbeque bad choice for a wedding?

Is bubbles [sic] in a whirlpool tub bad?

No matter how you got here — whether or not you enjoy what you’re reading — please don’t forget to:

Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment — assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not!

Um, actually, I got no letters this week. None. Zippo. (Yes, folks you could have had your name in lights if you had only dropped me an email.) But E-Dogg left me this comment after reading my stupid fees post:

Guess what Len … you owe me a $5.00 ‘reader fee.’ Yes the info was good, enjoyable and at times humorous, but, alas, I read it, and that’s my fee. Contact me by e-mail for payment options. (I charge extra for dealing with dirty cash).

The check is in the mail, E-dogg. (If you don’t receive it in a few days, the postal service lost it.)

Nice roundup! Hey, on the topic of pizza, I recently had the best pizza ever. In my life… In India. I heard you can get it at some pizza shops in the states though. It’s Chicken Tikka Pizza. Incredible topping and sauce. It’s the holy grail of pizza.

You’re on fire with this one. Thanks for the link. Guess what unexpected Google results I started scoring when we began our Boner of the Week! segments? But, hey, traffic=traffic, even if it’s not what they’re expecting….

Disclaimer

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